was empty, all its men dead, wounded, cap
tured, or running for their lives.
In the sea, men also died. As another land
ing craft, 85, beached at Easy Red and struck
a mine, German machine guns and artillery
zeroed in. "The shells tore into the troop com
partments.... They smashed through massed
men trying to get down the ramp," the captain
later reported. Ablaze and riddled, she backed
off the beach, carrying a cargo of dead and
wounded. Her crew transferred all able-bodied
survivors to other landing craft heading for
Omaha. Her doctor helped with casualties,
then boarded a boat for the beach to tend to
those dying in the surf and on the sand.
What scenes we know on Bloody Omaha
live on in the memories of men like Joe
Vaghi-the brave but unsung troops who
soldiered on and won the war, along with the
forgotten sons of beaches who were both sail
ors and soldiers.
There is also the scene recorded by one of
the BIGOT artists, Lt. William Bostick. On
June 7, the day after, he walked the shore
he'd seen for months in his imagination and
watched soldiers digging temporary graves for
bodies carried up from the sands. Then he
drew one more sketch,
a study in pen and
O.
*ri
,
ink that rendered the Contribute to a D-Day Mem
high price of human
ory Book, listen to survivors,
liberty. He titled it,
including Joe Vaghi, and find
"Burying the Dead on
more resources at national
Omaha Beach."
0 geographic.com/ngm/0206.
UNTOLD STORIES OF D-DAY